South Korea's Naver Corp to open a startup incubator in Paris

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

PARIS, June 15 (Reuters) - South Korea's Naver Corp plans to open a startup incubator in the new Paris mega-campus for start-ups 'Station F' that has been funded by billionaire Xavier Niel, said Fleur Pellerin, founder of venture capital investor Korelya Capital.

Dubbed "Space Green", the incubator is slated to welcome about 10 early-stage European companies in a 300 square-meter space with 80 desks.

"There's a wish to contribute to the European ecosystem, because there's a belief that big tech champions can emerge in Europe," said Pellerin, a former French digital economy minister.

The campus was built with 250 million euros ($281 million) in funds from Niel and is located in the southeastern part of the French capital. It aims to be the world's biggest startup campus with 34,000 square meters of space and more than 3,000 desks.

Naver, which operates South Korea's biggest search engine, and Japanese subsidiary Line Corp, a popular messaging app in southeast Asia, each invested 50 million euros last year in K-Fund 1, a venture fund steered by Korelya Capital.